Ian Poulter lays bare the secrets of golf

Poulter's four wins out of four matches at Medinah made him
Europe's most successful Ryder Cup player of all time. Here, he
lays bare the secrets of golf, mano-a-mano...

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Chipping: "There's no 'lagging up' in my
vocabulary." "When you're chipping from off the green, you have to
give yourself a chance of holing it. It's possible to change the
whole game with one great bunker shot or chip, or one big
putt."

Putting: "No second-guessing." "I get very turned on by the idea of having to hole that
putt; there's no second-guessing. I'd like to recreate that in
stroke play and I'm going to work very, very hard to. But nothing
in my mind tells me anything other than: 'I am going to hole this
putt, whatever the distance.' It's like everything I've ever worked
for, everything I've ever done, is channelled into that putt."

Mental preparation: "It's one-on-one." "It's one-on-one, not one against 155, so your adrenaline
is up, your heart beats a little quicker, your level of
concentration is higher because it's match play. That's why you've
always seen the best golf played in the Ryder Cup. You have to be
aggressive."

Bunker shots: "It's like a dartboard." "Once you get to that focus level, incredible things
happen. It's like looking at a dartboard and your focus changes
from the double ring to the treble, to the outer bull, to the bull.
Your focus is so high, your concentration is so intense that your
target gets bigger. You don't look at the hole, you look at the
absolute dead centre of the hole."

Nerve on the first tee: "You have to front up." One Friday, Bubba Watson had the crowd at the first tee
cheering him wildly. By Saturday he repeated the trick, but Poulter
exhorted the crowd to cheer him too. "It was a great moment," says
Poulter. "Bubba was always going to do it and I didn't want to be
in that situation where he got that one up on us."

Be positive: "Anything is possible." "I've never worked with a sports psychologist. I believe
it's in me. Anything is possible if you have the right level of
concentration and focus. It doesn't matter who you are - you can
achieve anything."

Dress like a winner: "I want to look as good as I
play." "As a professional, it would have been easy for me to
have taken a nice sum of money from sponsors to wear their
clothing, but I always wanted my own unique look... like Seve,
Payne Stewart or John Daly. I set up my own golf clothing company
five years ago and this year we will show a profit. That makes me
very proud."